Tropical Fruits

Well Classes 1 and 2, back in the early 1900’s as well as coconuts, different fruits were planted too and although most of those have now been removed there are still a few left in the garden, which we can harvest for ourselves and which form an important part of our diet.

So what are they?

Well we have pineapples - did you know they grow on a small, bushy, creeping plant on the ground? – We didn’t until we saw them here. The climate is so warm on the island pineapples grow throughout the year and ripen almost instantly – they taste fantastic.

There are guavas, which grow on trees and look a bit like small oranges. These are particularly good to eat and have a similar taste to sweet gooseberries. They are a real favourite for some of the birds here, particularly the blue pigeon and fruit bats.

We have bananas, oranges, grapefruits and limes, which are all very similar to what you can buy back in Britain.

But our favourite must be the papaya, which grows on very tall trees in bunches, a little like coconuts. They are a soft fruit about the size of a small melon and a challenge to pick – it always takes two of us – one with a very long stick to dislodge the fruit, the other standing at the bottom of the tree ready to catch. We eat them like melons, but they have a texture of very ripe avocados, they are delicious.

So we are all really glad they didn’t remove all the fruit trees when they turned Aride into a nature reserve!

The Coconut Story

Well Class 4, originally only visited by travellers, Arab traders and pirates, in 1861 Aride had a very small permanent human population of two. From this time on the number of inhabitants increased and the island was developed as a plantation, with the coconut being the most useful tree. The flat plateau and large sections of the hill were soon cultivated commercially with all the native woodland lost by 1868. All the original big trees were felled for timber and much of the island was cleared. Originally the coconuts were limited to the beach crest, where they would have established from nuts that had been washed on to the beach. In the 1920’s and ‘30’s there was an extensive planting programme and they began to cover a large percentage of the island.

But why coconuts, well the nuts were gathered and the dried flesh called copra was extracted for oils. The Copra house where this was done can still be seen on Aride today and this we plan to preserve to tell visitors about the history of the island. However whether due to the remoteness, the harsh dry conditions or difficult seas around the island we will never know, but Aride fortunately never became a full copra plantation unlike many of the other outlying islands. In 1967 it had a stroke of good fortune and a visit from Paul Chernard, a local Seychellois, decided it was too special and should be preserved as a nature reserve. From this time the removal of the coconuts began and the natural forest was allowed to regenerate and this has continued to present day.

The coconut palms are now just restricted to the beach crest where they would have occurred naturally and they are an excellent local food for the island. Coconut curry must be the staple diet of Aride Islanders, as we harvest the nuts and crack them open to obtain the coconut inside. This we shred out of the shells using a specially designed stool with a serrated blade on the end. The coconut is then combined with water to make coconut milk which is the staple ingredient for many dishes, both sweet and savoury. One of the local Seychellois rangers favourite is a pudding called ‘La Dobe’, which is coconut milk and a root from a marsh plant here on the island – coco yam – about which, together with all the other natural foods, I will tell you about next time...

Where do we get our water from?

Hi Classes 1 and 2, it sometimes seems funny that we are living on an island surrounded by water but we need to think about where we get our water for living from. Of course we are surrounded by the sea which is salt water and no good for drinking or washing. Luckily living on an island in a tropical climate, means it rains a lot more than back in Britain, and this we rely on.

We collect our drinking water off the roof of our house and store it in six big barrels. Before we do this, we need to make sure the roof is clean and all the bird pooh and leaves has been washed off. We can then drink and use this water for cooking, after it has been through a simple filter.

However it doesn’t rain all the time and so we need to make sure that we have stored enough during the two rainy seasons, and that we don’t waste our drinking supplies.

For all washing; ourselves, dishes and clothes, we have a well. The water from the well is slightly salty, which is no good for drinking but ok for washing. The well is 5metres deep and we use a bucket on a piece of rope to reach the water. The rope has knots in it so that we can grip it well and pull the bucket up when it is full and heavy. This water we then carry to our house in our own buckets, where we use it, we haven’t got a shower, sink or washing machine, so everything is washed by hand.

Not having a permanent supply of water or running water out of a tap and having too carry it from a well, really makes us think about how much water we use and encourages us to economical with every drop. This is important when living on an island to ensure that we don’t run out before it rains again.

A tour round our plantation bungalow

Located just off the beach crest, our plantation bungalow doesn’t have many similarities to anything we have lived in the UK, but is well suited for here and this hot climate. Originally built in the 1930’s to house people that worked on Aride when it was a coconut plantation. They are made of granite from the island, combined with cement, on top of a concrete plinth with tin roofs. The concrete plinth helps to raise the rooms up to stop some of the wildlife (and may be water) coming in. There are limited mod cons, with electric from a generator, but no running water or toilet.

The kitchen has a gas cooker and electric fridge, (the latter is essential in this hot climate), but no sink or drainer and the cupboards are basic, but built to keep the mice out. We have a few shelves for storage, but only for items that can’t be broken into by mice, birds, lizards, ants and crabs.

Off the kitchen there are two verandas, one for washing up and storing drinking water, the other is our main living space, where we eat and relax in the evenings.

Behind the kitchen there is a large room which is our personal office and storage room for tools, snorkelling kit, fishing gear and all other possessions. There are no windows in this room, so we have decorated it in bright white, to help us see with the dim lights here in the evening.

The bedroom is just big enough for a bed and one cupboard and chest of drawers. The bed has to be in the middle of the room so that we don’t get wet through the leaky roof when we have a tropical storm.

We try to keep all our clothes hung, why do you think we do that?
Please excuse the pink sheets – they were all we could find here – but they do brighten up the room!

The legs of the table we eat off and of our bed are all stood in tubs of water – why do you think this is??

Around the bed there is a large net, do you know what this is for?

In this picture, there is also a coconut shell with a coil on top which you light, what do you think this does?

Then there is the bathroom, well this is a bit of a grand name for a room with a whole in the wall to take dirty water! As we don’t have running water there isn’t a bath, shower or sink and definitely no toilet. To shower we fill a bucket from the well and pour it over or heads, often adding a kettle full of warm water first, as it can be a bit chilly.

Class 4 imagined that they were Sally or Melv and wrote entries for their diaries. Here are some extracts from the diaries:

Sally

This evening we went to Praslin to go shopping. There is no chocolate and no crisps. I am finding it hard to adjust, but I know the longer I stay here I will get used to it and I must because this is a once in a lifetime trip and I can’t forget a moment of this two year experience. India*

PS. Today it was a staggering 30 degrees and I couldn’t go anywhere without my giant, floppy sunhat. In my opinion, I think I don’t look stunning. Jade*

I quite miss having chocolate or a bag of crisps because the shops don’t have them either. I suppose it means I’m healthier but still, I’m a big fan of chocolate! Abigail*


We do like our home because all the animals live with us and we have company everywhere we go. Gemma*

I went to bed because I was tired but I couldn’t get to sleep because of the waves and also I think because there are tons of spiders. It’s not just me who’s sleeping in my room! Rebecca*

When we wake up in the morning, we can hear all of the different kinds of bird gently singing in the breeze but at night most of the time some of the creepy crawlies come in our room an scare me out of my pyjamas!! It’s really scary. Katie*

Melv
Today I went fishing. I caught a whopper. I can’t describe it. We fish with a cane. There are no fishing rods here. Connor*

It looks nothing like Somerset. It is very hot. You could fry an egg on the floor. Luke M*

I love it here despite the heat. I am going to take a walk in the forest son because there is plenty of shade and space. Anyway, I love this place and I’m trying to have as much fun as possible because this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I’ve always wanted to come to an island like this and here I am now. Ben I*

Life here is a breeze. The sun heals my worries and refreshes my mind. Hayden*

Everyday I think I’m back in the rainy England but then I open the door and the sun’s rays beat against my face and then it hits me, I’m in the SUNNY SEYCHELLES.

Hi to Class 1 & 2 of Meare School from the Seychelles

The Seychelles are over 7,000 miles away and it is a country made up of 115 small islands. Melvyn and I came over to work here last December swapping our nature reserves in Somerset for a nature reserve called Aride Island. Aride is an island which is smaller than the village of Meare, with only eight people living on it, Melvyn and me, two volunteers and 4 local rangers.


Our job here is to look after the island and its wildlife, the wildlife is very special and is some of the rarest in the world. There are birds, turtles, lizards, crabs, fish, snakes and spiders, all living on and around Aride.


For us, living on Aride island can be quite hard work, there is no electricity or running water and of course no shops. We carry our water from a well and have a generator for electricity. We don’t have cars or bicycles as there are no roads and we go shopping once a week in a boat, as long as the sea is not too rough.

We live in a house, which we share with some of the wildlife like lizards and crabs, it is next to the beach and we can hear the waves when we go to sleep, there is a garden where we grow our food and we catch fish from the sea.

Hi Class 4,

Well we have finally arrived in the Seychelles and have now been living on Aride Island for the last 6 weeks, it is fantastic and there is so much to share with you, I almost don’t know where to start!

So what I will do first is show where we are living on the island and then hopefully you can start to visualise what things look like when I talk about our day to day living, our work and then of course the wildlife.

As you know the Seychelles are made up of a series of islands, there are two main ones – Mahe, which has a population of 90,000 and Praslin (in the picture on the left) which has 7,000 people.

Aride Island (picture right), is north of Praslin and has a human population of 8, but a bird population of up to 1.25 million. It is only 70ha in size (1,500m x 350m) and is right in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

The island is made up of 3 main areas:

The beach, which is a mix of sand and rocks and is about 750m long, and runs along the southern edge.

The plateau, which is next to the beach, and is our only flat piece of ground approximately 750m by 70m, this is where we all live. The plateau is where all the houses are, there are a total of 7, 1 for the wardens, 1 for the volunteers, 4 for the local rangers and 1 for visiting researchers and scientists. Also on the plateau is the well for our water, the garden, where we grow our food, the boat house for the boats to be kept out of the heat and the sun, and the Conservation Centre which is where we have the office and a visitors centre and shop for the tourists.

The hill, which forms the main part of the island, it is a rocky outcrop north of the plateau and very rugged. This is where most of the birds live, although the plateau is used by a lot of wildlife, the hill apparently becomes alive later in the year as most of the birds use this area to breed. The hill is 134m high and is a very steep climb in the Seychelles climate which is very hot and humid.

So where do we live? Well we are very lucky and we live right next to the beach (see arrow) and the noise of the sea is constant. When we go to sleep we can hear the waves crashing onto the beach and sometimes they are so loud it sounds like a thunderstorm echoing through the windows and doors.

There are lots of things to tell you over the next few months about how different life is on an island in the Seychelles, but to start with the things that spring to mind are:

We go shopping in a speed boat to Praslin to small shops which very often have a poor selection of food – certainly no crisps or chocolate and most of the time no onions or potatoes. This is not just the case for food, Melv couldn’t find a mirror to have a shave for 6 weeks and the one he has now got is yellow with a big teddy bear on the back – but don’t tell anybody!

With no television or radio our entertainment in an evening is watching skinks, geckos and crabs.

Washing is great fun and all our water comes either from the well or off the roof and our shower is a bucket over our heads.

The weather is very, very hot and 30’C most days, and so we go now where without factor 50 sun cream and big floppy hats. The climate is also very humid and our clothes don’t ever really dry out.

I will finish by saying you were all right about the wildlife a night, we share our house with lots of creatures...